13 Must-know tips to hire product managers

Product managers play a pivotal role in driving the triumph of a product and overseeing the cross-functional team accountable for its ongoing enhancement. This is a crucial position within organizations, particularly in technology companies.

Nevertheless, the process of identifying the right product manager can be overwhelming. With so many candidates, it can be difficult to know where to start. In this article, we’ll share 13 must-know tips to help you hire ideal product managers for your business.

Table of Contents

• Product managers, who are they?
• What does a product manager do
• 13 Must-known tips for hiring a product manager
  • 1. Clearly define the role
  • 2. Identify key qualifications
  • 3. Develop a comprehensive job description
  • 4. Leverage multiple sourcing channels
  • 5. Seek industry experience
  • 6. Assess strategic thinking
  • 7. Evaluate communication skills
  • 8. Look for leadership qualities
  • 9. Assess analytical skills
  • 10. Test problem-solving abilities
  • 11. Cultural fit
  • 12. Conduct reference checks
  • 13. Consider a trial period or project
• How much does it cost to hire a product manager?
• Where to find a great product manager?
• Conclusion

Product managers, who are they?

A product manager is a professional responsible for overseeing the development, strategy, and success of a product or service throughout its lifecycle. They act as the bridge between various teams, such as engineering, design, marketing, and sales, to ensure the product meets customer needs, aligns with business goals, and delivers value to the market.

These managers conduct market research, define product requirements, prioritize features, collaborate with stakeholders, and make informed decisions to drive the product’s growth and profitability. They are instrumental in shaping the product vision, creating roadmaps, and guiding the team toward achieving product objectives.

What does a product manager do?

The first and foremost thing before hiring product managers is understanding their roles and responsibilities. A product director is responsible for various tasks and responsibilities related to developing and succeeding a product or service. Here are some key roles and activities typically performed by a product manager:

• Product Strategy: Defining the overall vision, goals, and strategy for the product, considering market trends, customer needs, and business objectives.

• Market Research: Research to understand the target market, customer needs, and competitive landscape. Gathering insights to inform product decisions.

• Product Planning: Creating and maintaining a product roadmap that outlines the planned features, enhancements, and timeline for product development.

• Requirement Gathering: Collaborating with stakeholders, customers, and internal teams to gather and prioritize product requirements. Translating customer needs into actionable features and specifications.

• Cross-functional Collaboration: Working closely with cross-functional teams, such as engineering, design, marketing, and sales, to align efforts and ensure the successful execution of the product roadmap.

• Product Development: Guiding the product development process, including defining product specifications, working with engineers and designers, conducting user testing, and overseeing the iterative development cycles.

• Release Management: Planning and coordinating product releases, ensuring proper testing, documentation, and communication with stakeholders and customers.

• Performance Monitoring: Tracking key product metrics and analyzing data to evaluate the product’s performance, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions.

• Customer Feedback: Actively seeking customer feedback, conducting user research, and incorporating customer insights into product development and refinement.

• Product Marketing: Collaborating with marketing teams to develop product positioning, messaging, and go-to-market strategies. Supporting marketing efforts with product knowledge and insights.

• Product Success and Growth: Monitoring the product’s success in the market, identifying growth opportunities, and continuously iterating and improving the product quality based on customer feedback and market dynamics.

Overall, a product director serves as a central figure in the product development process, working at the intersection of business, technology, and customer needs to ensure the creation of valuable and successful products.

13 Must-known tips for hiring a product manager

Hiring product managers is crucial for any business. They are responsible for ensuring that the company’s products meet the customers’ needs and are delivered on time and within budget.

Below are 13 must-know tips when hiring product managers that you can apply for your business:

1. Clearly define the role

A clear definition of the role enables the hiring team to identify and attract candidates with the specific skills, experience, and qualifications required for the position. It helps narrow the search and focus on candidates who are the best fit for the role.

Defining the role clearly helps set the expectations for both the hiring team and the candidates. It ensures that everyone understands the specific responsibilities, tasks, and objectives associated with the position.

When the role is well-defined, evaluating candidates during the hiring process becomes easier. The hiring team can align interview questions, assessments, and evaluations with the specific requirements of the role, ensuring a more objective and accurate assessment of the candidates.

2. Identify key qualifications

Key qualifications serve as a screening criterion for evaluating candidates during hiring. It allows the hiring team to quickly assess if a candidate meets the minimum requirements for the role, streamlining the screening and selection process.

By identifying key qualifications, you can ensure that candidates have the necessary skills, knowledge, and experience to excel in the role. This alignment increases the chances of hiring a product manager who can effectively perform the job responsibilities.

Hiring product managers with key qualifications enables them to make a meaningful impact on the product and the organization. They bring the necessary expertise to drive product strategy, effectively collaborate with cross-functional teams, and contribute to the product’s overall success.

3. Develop a comprehensive job description

Developing a comprehensive job description when hiring product managers is important because it helps effectively communicate the role, attract qualified candidates, align the position with organizational goals, enable effective evaluation, provide role clarity to candidates, ensure legal compliance, and support onboarding and performance management efforts.

A comprehensive job description helps potential candidates understand the role’s expectations, responsibilities, and opportunities for growth. It allows them to assess their suitability and interest in the position, resulting in a higher likelihood of attracting genuinely motivated and well-suited candidates for the role.

4. Leverage multiple sourcing channels

Leveraging multiple sourcing channels is essential when hiring product managers because it expands the reach to a larger and more diverse talent pool, increases the chances of finding highly qualified candidates, and eliminates the risk of missing out on top talent who may not be actively seeking job opportunities.

The product management field is highly competitive, and top-tier candidates are often in high demand. Relying on a single sourcing channel may limit your access to the best talent. By leveraging multiple channels, you can mitigate talent shortages and increase the chances of finding qualified candidates, even in a competitive job market.

5. Seek industry experience

Product development leads with industry experience possess a deep understanding of the industry’s specific market, trends, and dynamics. This knowledge enables them to make informed decisions, understand customer needs and pain points, and develop product strategies that align with industry requirements.

As a result, seeking industry experience when hiring product managers brings valuable domain knowledge, accelerates onboarding, provides customer insights, leverages existing relationships, enhances market awareness, builds credibility, and mitigates risks. These benefits contribute to the product manager’s effectiveness in driving product success within the industry and aligning the product with industry-specific needs and market dynamics.

More importantly, hiring product managers with industry experience enhances their credibility and instills trust among team members, stakeholders, and customers. Their expertise and track record within the industry lend credibility to their decisions and recommendations, which can positively influence the team’s confidence and overall perception of the product manager’s leadership.

6. Assess strategic thinking

Strategic thinking is crucial for long-term success. It ensures managers can anticipate market shifts, position the product for future growth, and adapt to evolving customer needs. Hiring product managers with strong strategic thinking skills sets the foundation for sustained product success and competitiveness.

For this reason, assessing strategic thinking when hiring product managers is vital to ensure they can provide vision, set goals, prioritize effectively, analyze markets, mitigate risks, collaborate cross-functionally, adapt to changes, and drive long-term success. These skills are critical for product managers to lead the strategic direction of the product and maximize its value within the market.

7. Evaluate communication skills

Evaluating communication skills is important when hiring product managers because product directors need strong communication skills to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams. They must be able to articulate their ideas, listen actively to others, and foster a collaborative environment. Effective communication promotes teamwork, alignment, and productivity in product development.

Product directors act as a bridge between different stakeholders, including executives, engineers, designers, marketers, and customers. They need to communicate product vision, strategy, and progress to various stakeholders, ensuring alignment and managing expectations. Effective communication skills help build relationships, gain support, and navigate different perspectives.

8. Look for leadership qualities

Product development managers lead cross-functional teams, including engineers, designers, and marketers. They often need to make critical decisions that impact the product’s direction, strategy, and success.

Hence, having good leadership qualities can enable them to motivate, inspire, and guide their teams effectively, fostering a collaborative and high-performing environment. Plus, leadership qualities such as sound judgment, decisiveness, and the ability to weigh risks and benefits are essential for making informed decisions.

In summary, looking for leadership qualities when hiring product managers is crucial to ensure effective team management, sound decision-making, vision and strategy, communication and influence, accountability and ownership, adaptability and resilience, stakeholder management, and continuous learning.

Strong leadership qualities empower product managers to drive the success of their products, inspire their teams, and navigate the complexities of the product management role.

9. Assess analytical skills

Product managers need strong analytical skills to collect, interpret, and analyze data. They use data to inform their decision-making process, identify market trends, understand customer behavior, and evaluate the success of product features. Analytical skills enable these managers to make data-driven decisions that lead to improved product outcomes.

Additionally, analytical skills are essential for forecasting and planning product success. Product directors need to analyze historical data, market trends, and customer feedback to make informed projections about future product performance. They use analytical models and techniques to estimate market demand, revenue potential, and resource requirements, which guide strategic planning and resource allocation.

In summary, assessing analytical skills when hiring product managers is crucial for data-driven decision making, market analysis, problem identification, user research, forecasting, tracking product metrics, and conducting experiments. Strong analytical skills empower these managers to make informed decisions, derive meaningful insights, and drive product success based on data and evidence.

10. Test problem-solving abilities

Problem-solving abilities are closely linked to critical thinking skills. Product management leaders need to approach complex challenges with a logical and analytical mindset. Testing problem-solving abilities helps assess their capacity to analyze problems, break them down into manageable components, and generate effective solutions.

Moreover, by testing problem-solving abilities, you can have insight into their adaptability and flexibility when faced with new and unfamiliar situations. Strong problem-solving skills enable product managers to quickly adjust their strategies and find creative solutions in dynamic environments.

11. Cultural fit

Product development directors play a significant role in shaping the direction and success of a product. When they align with the company’s values, they are more likely to make decisions and drive initiatives aligning with its mission and culture. This alignment creates a cohesive and unified approach to product management.

Hiring product managers who are a cultural fit increases the likelihood of long-term engagement and retention. When product managers feel connected to the company culture and values, they are more likely to be satisfied with their work environment and have a higher level of commitment to the organization. This, in turn, reduces turnover and helps maintain continuity in product management initiatives.

Cultural fit can foster an environment that encourages innovation and creativity. When managers align with the company’s values, they feel empowered to take risks, propose new ideas, and challenge the status quo. This promotes an atmosphere of innovation, where diverse perspectives are welcomed and nurtured, leading to more innovative product solutions.

12. Conduct reference checks

Conducting reference checks when hiring product managers is important to validate skills and experience, evaluate performance, assess work style and team compatibility, confirm achievements and responsibilities, assess leadership and problem-solving abilities, evaluate cultural fit, and mitigate hiring risks.

Reference checks provide valuable insights that complement the information gathered during the interview process, ensuring a more thorough evaluation of the candidate’s suitability for the product manager role.

13. Consider a trial period or project

A trial period or project allows both the product manager and the organization to learn and adapt. It allows the product manager to better understand the organization, its processes, and its product development approach. Likewise, the organization can adapt and refine its expectations based on the observed performance and collaboration during the trial period.

Considering a trial period or project when hiring product managers allows for the assessment of performance, validation of skills, evaluation of cultural fit, alignment of expectations, risk mitigation, learning and adaptation, and increased confidence in the hiring decision.

It provides a valuable opportunity to evaluate the product manager’s capabilities and fit within the organization before making a long-term commitment, ultimately leading to better hiring outcomes.

How much does it cost to hire a product manager?

According to Indeed, the average salary for a product manager is $113,362 per year in the United States. Besides the average salary, the cost of hiring product managers can vary significantly depending on location, industry, level of experience, and company size.

Some of the common cost components associated with hiring a product manager include:

• Recruitment Advertising: Companies may incur costs for job advertisements on online platforms, job boards, or industry-specific publications to attract qualified candidates. The cost can vary based on the duration and visibility of the advertisements.

• Onboarding and Training: Once hired, there may be costs associated with onboarding and training the product manager. This includes orientation materials, training programs, mentorship initiatives, and necessary professional development resources.

• Compensation and Benefits: The product manager’s salary and benefits package are significant cost considerations. Salaries can vary based on location, industry, level of experience, and the specific responsibilities of the role.

• Employee Benefits and Perks: Additional costs may include employee benefits and perks like health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, bonuses, stock options, or other incentives offered in the compensation package.

• Indirect Costs: Indirect costs include administrative expenses, office space, equipment, and software licenses required for the product manager to perform their role effectively.

Where to find a great product manager?

There are several places where you can find great product managers:

• Online Job Platforms: Utilize popular online job platforms such as LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, and AngelList to advertise your product manager position and attract qualified candidates. These platforms allow you to approach a wide audience and provide filters to narrow down your search based on location, experience level, and skills.

• Professional Networking: Leverage your professional network to find great product managers. Reach out to colleagues, industry contacts, and attend product management events, conferences, or meetups to connect with professionals in the field. Networking platforms like LinkedIn can also help you identify potential candidates through mutual connections or relevant professional groups.

• Product Management Conferences and Events: Attend product management conferences, workshops, or industry events. These gatherings bring together professionals passionate about product management, providing an opportunity to network, learn, and potentially identify top talent.

• University and Alumni Networks: Explore partnerships with universities and colleges that offer product management or related programs. Engage with their career centers, participate in career fairs, or tap into their alumni networks to connect with recent graduates or experienced professionals looking for new opportunities.

• Product Management Communities on Social Media: Join product management groups on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Slack. Participate in discussions, share insights, and establish connections with product managers interested in new roles.

Remember, finding great product managers is not limited to a single source. It is beneficial to leverage multiple channels simultaneously to maximize your chances of connecting with qualified candidates.

If you still find hiring product managers a difficult task, then you can choose Mageplaza’s product management suite instead. They are one of the most popular companies that can assist you with their service.

Conclusion

Finding an ideal product manager has never been an easy task. Following these 13 tips above can increase your chances of finding the right product manager for your business.